Bagaimana Segalanya Bermula?

Segalanya bermula dengan begitu pantas dan tak disedari. Pertama kali saya mendengar mengenai homeschooling, ketika mula-mula buka akaun FB dan berkawan dengan Ummu Urwah Syuhada yang juga tuan punya akaun Sweetlove Homeschooling. Saya tak pernah tahu bagaimana homeschooling ini berjalan. Bagaimana silibusnya? No idea at ALL. Pun begitu, saya memang menyimpan cita-cita untuk mengajar anak sendiri di rumah.

Saya cuba untuk study beberapa blog yang berkaitan yang saya temui, antaranya blog : A Muslim Child is Born. Blog ini hanya memberi idea dan sumber untuk download aktiviti-aktiviti yang dibuat bersama anak dan saya masih samar-samar apa sebenarnya homeschool dan bagaimana ia beroperasi.  Sehinggalah saya terjumpa satu blog; Raising Sahabas. Saya kerap mengikuti perkembangannya serta hampir sudah membaca kesemua entrinya. Dan kini alhamdulillah saya mendapat gambaran yang HAMPIR menyeluruh apa itu HOMESCHOOL.

Subhanallah, Allah izinkan saya menemui perkara-perkara ini tepat pada masanya. Masa yang mana Abdullah sudah masuk 3 tahun; sangat bertenaga dan mula menunjuk minat untuk tahu semua benda! Saya meneruskan pencarian mengenai homeschool ini. Ketika Abdullah di kampung selama seminggu, saya menggunakan waktu ini untuk membaca seberapa banyak yang saya mampu mengenai homeschooling. Masha Allah! Dari tak tahu kepada.. hampir overloaded dengan maklumat mengenai homeschooling.

Apabila saya membaca blog-blog para ibu (kebanyakannya di UK) mengenai HS, saya sangat kagum dan mereka sangat-sangat memberi inspirasi kepada saya bahawa ibu adalah guru terbaik untuk anak. Dan bukan sesuatu yang mustahil untuk seorang ibu mengajar HAMPIR semua perkara kepada anaknya.  Teori ini memang telah kita maklumi, iaitu segalanya bermula dari rumah - ibu adalah guru terbaik anak dll.. tetapi kita di Malaysia mungkin kurang terdedah mengenai HS dan sudah terbiasa dengan budaya menghantar anak ke sekolah sehingga adanya persepsi-persepsi yang mengatakan anak tidak akan belajar apa-apa jika tidak ke sekolah. 

Saya sangat sarankan kepada para ibu untuk membaca dan mengikuti penulisan ibu-ibu yang menjalankan HS di UK / US ini. Subhanallah betapa 'besarnya' dan banyaknya seorang ibu boleh lakukan kepada anak-anak. Jika anda menghantar anak ke sekolah sekali pun, anda masih boleh lakukannya. Homeschooling is all about guiding your children, getting connected to them and preparing them to lead the life.

Beberapa ketika setelah membaca sekian banyaknya artikel dan blog post mengenai homeschooling, saya mula terfikir satu perkara; mengenai hafazan al-Quran. How can I do it at home? Maybe I should send to him to school also? Subhanallah, tak lama selepas itu, saya jumpa satu blog - Ummi Homeschools Me - yang berkongsi bagaimana dia menyelia anaknya menghafaz al-Quran yang ketika ini berusia 8 tahun dan dia menyasarkan anaknya akan hafal keseluruhan al-Quran pada umur 10 tahun. Sekali lagi, saya kagum dan bersemangat. Insha Allah, if she can do it, I can do it too with the help and guidance from Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala.

Now here I am, feeling excited to embark this whole new experience together with my children. Inshaa Allah I'll try to keep this blog updated as there is so much more that I would like to share with the readers (if any hehe).

Bedtime is not a 'battle' anymore..

Subhanallah.. before this bedtime has always been a struggle. I had to drag my son all along the way to his bed. He kept giving me excuses so that he can stay awake for a while. I think this is common for preschoolers.

Not until I found this link that shows how the mother put her 3 little bubs (5, 4, 2) to bed masha allah : Umm Abdul Basir's

I was thinking to do the same thing with Abdullah, but I kept delaying it (because of not enough material hehe) until I don't know how and when.. I figured out that he loves being read to sooo much. So, I tried to make a routine. Before bedtime, he must drink some milk, go to the toilet and brush his teeth. And we'll go upstairs together and have our read aloud session, and of course with our sweet little Umamah too (even if she wanders around more than sitting quietly on my lap). It's so easy masha allah. We have been doing this for 2 weeks, not just I don't have to use power struggle to make him go to bed, he even sleeps earlier!

We read one book (one story) every night. We have a book which consists of collections of stories from al-Quran. Don't be surprised if your child asks you to read the same story every night. Please bear with him. He will learn different thing each time he listens to it. Recently, we bought a book, one of Thomas and Friends series and Abdullah is completely in love with it because there are buttons that create sounds. Inshaa Allah we are trying to buy more books in the future.

Read aloud is definitely one of the prereading activities that can instill the love of reading into your child :)

Abdullah wrote his first letter (purposefully)

Yesterday, when we were walking in the mall, a woman and a man from the UNICEF AIDS-free campaign approached us. They asked us to sign our names on the huge white paper to show our support. And so we did. The man offered Abdullah to write something on the paper. I said to him, “You can try to write the letter ‘aa’”. (I taught him letters’ sound and not letters’ names). I was not hoping that he will write it. To my surprise, he did masha allah!

Last week we have been doing a few activities on the letter ‘a’. I cut a potato into a letter ‘a’, and he enjoyed stamping it on a large piece of paper. We cut a few animal pictures that begin with the sound of ‘aa’ – arnab, anjing, angsa. (I started with bahasa first as it is our main language of communication.) We painted the letter, and he did some tracing but just a few, no fun maybe 

I’ve been asking him to recognize the letter ‘a’ during our read aloud session before bedtime or at any time of the day. He managed to do that alhamdulillah. Insha allah I will write about the sound game that we play which is one of the Montessori way to teach children how to read and write.

Subhanallah.. I just cant wait to document this moment that I begin this blog by writing about it and not introducing the whole thing that I’m trying to do here